The Lycan's Broken Moon

The Lycan's son

Cassian POV

The healer's quarters smelled of lavender and regret.

I stood in the doorway, watching my son sit motionless by the window. His small hands folded in his lap, his eyes fixed on something beyond the glass that only he could see. He is seven years old now. old enough to understand death. old enough to understand abandonment. old enough to know that the woman who had given birth to him had chosen a life without him.

"Any change?" I asked the healer, keeping my voice low so Leo wouldn't hear.

Dr. Vane looked up from her charts, her ancient eyes sad with the weight of knowledge she couldn't share. She shook her head slowly, silver hair catching the candlelight. "He speaks to no one, my king. Not in words. Sometimes he hums songs his mother used to sing. But words..." She spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness. "The trauma runs deep. The silence is his armor."

I nodded, the familiar weight settling heavier on my shoulders. I had heard this before. I would like to hear it again. Leo had been mute for three years. Ever since the night I had held his father while Mike bled out from a wound that should have been mine. Ever since we had both watched Mike's mate walk out the door and never look back at the son she'd left behind.

She couldn't handle it, she had said, her eyes dry, her heart already gone. The war. Death. The responsibility. I am not built for this life.

She had been Mike's true mate. The Moon Goddess's chosen pairing. And she had abandoned him in his final hours. abandoned their child without a backward glance.

I had taken Leo that same night. Hadn't even thought about it. I just bundled the silent boy in my arms and brought him to the palace. to my room. to the space where I'd once imagined my own children would sleep.

I had been newly crowned then. freshly betrayed by my own mate, Grace. who had taught me that true mates were just another pretty lie told to keep us compliant.

Grace. The memory of her name still tasted like ash. My first mate. My chosen partner. The woman who had looked me in the eyes and sworn loyalty. while sleeping with my enemies, feeding them secrets, plotting my death.

Never again, I had promised myself. No more mates. No more vulnerability. No more giving someone the power to destroy you.

"Your Majesty?" Dr. Vane's voice pulled me back to the present. "Will you be taking Leo to your chambers tonight?"

I looked at my son. My adopted son, though I never thought of him that way. He was mine. Blood or not, silence or not, he was the only good thing I had managed to salvage from the wreckage of the war.

"Yes," I said. "Carry on with your research. Find me something. Anything."

I crossed to Leo and knelt beside his chair. He didn't look at me, but his hand found mine, small fingers threading through my larger ones. He knew I was there. He always knew. He just couldn't say it.

"Come, little prince," I murmured, lifting him easily. He was too light, too thin. The healers said he ate enough, but I worried anyway. "Time for bed."

He rested his head on my shoulder, and I felt the familiar ache in my chest. The one that had nothing to do with physical wounds and everything to do with love for a child I couldn't fully reach.

I had just settled Leo into his bed, and had just pulled the covers up to his chin. I watched his eyes flutter closed, when I felt her presence.

Hazel.

My beta. My friend. The only person in this palace who dared to tell me the truth.

"You hover," she said from the doorway. Her short hair spiked and disheveled as always. Her leather armor creaked as she leaned against the frame. "He is sleeping, Cassian. He will still be breathing when you get back."

I straightened, adjusting the heavy crown I rarely removed. "You have that look. The one that means you are about to annoy me."

"I have many looks." She pushed off the frame and entered the room, moving silently for someone wearing armor. "But yes. This is the annoying one." She stopped beside me, looking down at Leo. with an expression that softened her sharp features. "He is peaceful tonight."

"He is always peaceful. That's the problem."

"That's not the problem I am here to discuss." Hazel turned to face me, and I saw the determination in her eyes. The stubborn set to her jaw. "The Shadow Vale wolves are mobilizing again. Three border incidents this week. The council is demanding action, demanding stability, demanding-"

"A Luna," I finished, my voice flat.

"A Luna," she confirmed. "The packs are restless. The lycans are questioning your authority. Without a queen, without an heir of your blood, the kingdom is vulnerable. You know this. You've known this for years."

"I have an heir." I gestured to the sleeping boy. "Leo is my heir. I named him myself, before the council, before the law."

"He's human-born, Cassian. A beta's son. The packs respect him, but they don't see him as a continuation of your line." Hazel's voice gentled, which was somehow worse than her usual bluntness. "You need a mate. A true mate, or a chosen one. Someone to stand beside you, to give you children, to-"

"Grace was my true mate," I interrupted, my wolf Ezra stirring restlessly in my mind. "Look how that ended."

"Grace was an anomaly. A defect. The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes, but sometimes..." Hazel hesitated. "Sometimes people break their own bonds. Grace broke hers. That doesn't mean your second chance doesn't exist."

Second chance. The phrase made my stomach twist. I had heard the stories. Lycans who found love after betrayal. wolves who discovered new mates when the first bond shattered. But I had also seen the statistics. The madness that followed. The way some lycans searched for decades, centuries. Driving themselves into ruin chasing a phantom.

"I won't do it," I said. "I won't open myself to that again. Not for the kingdom. Not for anyone."

Hazel's eyes narrowed. "Then you're a coward."

I laughed, harsh and short. "Careful, beta. That's treason."

"It's true." She crossed her arms, unimpressed by my title. "You let one woman destroy your capacity for trust, and now an entire kingdom suffers for it. Leo suffers for it. He needs a mother figure, Cassian. Someone who can reach him in ways you can't."

"I reached him fine."

"You reach him as a father. He needs more." She stepped closer, lowering her voice. "Find a mate. Chosen, if you must. The packs will accept a political alliance. Just... stop hiding behind your scars."

I looked at her. I really looked at her and saw the worry beneath the anger. The genuine fear for our people, for me, for the boy sleeping inches away.

"You speak of mates," I said, my voice softening into something dangerous. "Yet I don't see you rushing to find yours. How old are you now, Hazel? Thirty-five? Forty?"

"Thirty-two," she corrected, her spine stiffening.

"Thirty-two. And unmated. Unclaimed. Alone." I smiled, but it didn't reach my eyes. "When you find your mate, beta. when you let yourself be vulnerable enough to accept that bond. Then come lecture me about cowardice. Until then..." I gestured toward the door. "Leave me with my son."

She stared at me for a long moment, something unreadable flickering across her face. Then she shook her head, a sharp, frustrated movement.

"Men," she muttered, turning to leave. "You are all the same. Running from the very thing that could save you."

She paused at the doorway, looking back over her shoulder. "For the record? I hope you find her. Your second chance. I hope she burns your walls down and makes you beg for mercy." She smiled, sharp as broken glass. "You deserve it, my king."

Then she was gone. Her footsteps fading down the hall, leaving me alone with my sleeping son. And the weight of a crown that suddenly felt like a cage.

She's right, Ezra rumbled in my mind, his presence a constant warmth against my thoughts. About Luna. About the need. We can't rule alone forever, Cassian.

I haven't forgotten what Grace did, I shot back. I haven't forgotten what Mike's mate did to him, leaving him to die alone, abandoning her child. Mates are a weakness, Ezra. A vulnerability we can't afford.

Leo is worth the vulnerability, my wolf insisted. Love is worth the risk.

Easy for you to say, I thought, bitterness coating my tongue. You are not the one who had to kill his own mate for treason.